Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has seen raise in popularity in recent times and has become more then just a telephony application. With the growing adoption of packet communications, service providers are transitioning from a voice-centric orientation for the connection and delivery of voice calls to a service-centric model focused on the rapid and efficient delivery of innovative, value-added services to enterprises and consumers.
The service delivery process requires the connection of user equipment (via media streams) to media processing equipment. This activity takes place under the direction of a service-provisioning layer. This duality is important because it retains flexibility and may permit considerable innovation in terms of future service offerings. In fact, media functionality is most commonly realized through the inclusion of dedicated Media Server platforms, the purpose of which is to provide unique and diverse services through common and shared media resource processing capabilities.
It is convenient to consider a media gateway as a collection of endpoints. An endpoint is a logical representation of a physical entity, such as an analog phone or a channel in a trunk. Endpoints are sources or sinks of data and can be physical or virtual. Physical endpoint creation requires hardware installation. An interface that terminates a trunk connected to a PSTN switch is an example of a physical endpoint. On the other hand, software is sufficient for creating a virtual endpoint. An audio source in an audio-content server is an example of a virtual endpoint. One current challenge faced involved with communications technology is the efficient implementation of virtual endpoints in an integrated communications platform.